Still, getting tuned up by the last-place Angels and shut down by a degraded Jered Weaver, which in turn capped a deflating sweep to begin the second half, probably is enough to start edging in the word “disaster” as a descriptor.

1. If the Sox were looking for telltale signs that Turner would have trouble with a major league lineup, he offered them up early. He walked leadoff man Yunel Escobar on four pitches, and after a pair of whistling lineouts, Albert Pujols cracked the first of two home runs off Turner for the day off to the rockpile in center. He faced the minimum over the second and third innings, but any notion of Turner ‘settling in’ was blasted away in his second turn through the heart of the order.

Mike Trout‘s leadoff double quickly became another run on Pujols’ second blast, and the Angels extended their lead to 6-1 on back-to-back RBI doubles from such luminaries as backup catcher Jett Bandy and utility infielder Gregorio Petit. Turner still came back for the fifth inning, but was chased after walking the first two men he faced, and Michael Ynoa was unsurprisingly ill-equipped to clean up the mess without incident.

2. With one out in the third, Omar Narvaez, effectively the fifth-string catcher if we’re following along from the start of the year, tracked a 67 mph Jered Weaver curveball and blasted it into the left-center gap for his first career major league hit. One out later, Adam Eaton got a hold of a 80 mph…fastball, change?…and drove it to the same place, but on a lower line plane to bring Narvaez home, and the White Sox scoreless streak died at 34 innings.

That was the Sox only run of the day, and their only two extra-base hits of the day. All three of the at-bats with runners in scoring position took place in this inning as well. They scored a run, though.

3. Weaver, dragging his way through starts with a sub-85 mph fastball, and still helming and eating innings for a definitively doomed Angels pitching staff despite an ERA well over 5.00, tossed his second gem of the season against Sox hitting despite not a hint of swing-and-miss stuff. He’s allowed two runs against the Sox in 14 innings despite striking out only three.

4. Carson Fulmer making his major league debut was so clearly the highlight of this game, there should be some sort of effort to censure me for holding it back this long. He struck out two over two scoreless, efficient innings, allowing just one single and throwing just 21 pitches (four whiffs) to seven batters. He pumped his low-to-mid-90s fastball in the zone on demand, and his high-80s slider was overwhelming. Those mechanics are low and violent but he looks like a reliever to enjoy this Summer.

5. This week will bring seven-straight against teams ahead of the Sox in the standings for the last Wild Card spot, and 14 games in a row total. The Sox front office doesn’t need a barometer for the quality of their team, but there should be some extra emphasis placed on the state of things by the end of the month.

Team Record: 45-46

Next game is Monday at 9:10pm CT in Seattle on CSN

Lead Image Credit: Jayme Kamin-Oncea

1. Saturday night in Anaheim, the White Sox fell victim to Angels starter Matt Shoemaker‘s 13-strikeout, complete game shutout breakout party. Shoemaker has been mostly subject to hard luck and hard contact this season despite flashing some dynamic swing-and-miss stuff, but Saturday was more exclusively the latter. Opposing starters have now strung together 30 strikeouts with no walks in 23 innings over the Sox last three games, and they have now lost back-to-back series to last place teams, and there’s a solid five teams between them and a Wild Card spot, in addition to a 8.5 game division gap.

2. There was the whole eight innings that preceded it to get all hot and bothered about, but the Sox probably best represented their struggles by finding a way to blow the ninth inning against Shoemaker when he was spiraling over 100 pitches, and they only needed one run to tie. Adam Eaton laced a leadoff double to the left-center gap, and really avoided a triple out of restraint; risking eliminating the tying run to grab third base with no one out is not prudent, right?

That process may have been good, but after Jose Abreu grounded out uselessly to third, and a bullet Melky Cabrera single to left didn’t allow Eaton to advance beyond third, the results were gut-wrenching. Despite titling over 110 pitches with fading command, and with the deeply struggling Huston Street warming in the pen, Shoemaker dug deep for his best sliders and struck out Todd Frazier–who had no read on him all night and whiffed three times–and Justin Morneau (who otherwise looked good) to end it.

3. Abreu seemed good, or the best of anyone at least. Not in his traditional favorite, ‘I once hit 29 home runs in a half of a season’ good, but he laced a pair of doubles and generally seemed cognizant of the reality that he was facing a glorified No. 4 starter. The mild flurry should keep his season line slightly north of depressing. However, he struck out with Eaton on second to end the sixth–a plate appearance that was imbued with far more importance than any random sixth inning plate appearance should have–and then bounced to short with Eaton representing the tying run on second in the ninth.

4. James Shields was…dominant? Results-wise, at least. He completed the sad version of the complete game, stringing together eight smooth one-run innings, and only getting burned because of the two hits he gave up on the ninth, one was a leadoff triple to Yunel Escobar in the first inning, which lead to a run across on a Mike Trout groundout.

He was far from overwhelming again, striking out just two and showing only flashes of decent breaking stuff, which has been representative of his nice stretch of outings against the Twins, Yankees, Braves and Angels. He’s put together a 1.91 ERA over those four-straight quality starts, but has struck out just 12 in 28.1 innings. The good starts matter, but the future implications are concerning until he shows a bit more.

5. At least Jacob Turner is the spot starter Sunday. That should be able to hold the opposition at bay until the offense gets on track.

Team Record: 45-45

Next game is Sunday at Los Angeles at 2:35pm CT on WGN

Lead Image Credit: Gary A. Vazquez // USA Today Sports Images

Enjoying the fruits of a soft early schedule has led them to a promising 10-6 start, but with the Rangers, Blue Jays and Orioles coming in to close the month, they may rue going 3-4 against the Rays and Angels, and especially failing to hit Jered Weaver on Thursday.

1. Despite barely being able to crack 85 mph and being reduced to looping breaking balls at age 33, Weaver was able to hold the Sox to three hits over seven innings despite only striking out two. The only tally against him came when Melky Cabrera ripped a frozen rope out to right for his first home run of the year; briefly making the practice of crushing slow-speed slop look as it easy as it normally seems, if only for a moment.

2. Otherwise, the Sox offense stayed dormant until they ran into the best pitcher they saw all day in Angels closer Huston Street. Protecting a two-run lead with two outs and the bases clear, Street hung a slider to Todd Frazier, who blasted his fourth homer of the year out to the opposite field and could probably be said to be struggling less than Jose Abreu at this point. The shot cut the Sox deficit in half and Street suddenly found himself leery of throwing strikes, issuing back-to-back walks to Cabrera and Brett Lawrie. But while Street didn’t stop making mistakes, his meatball to Austin Jackson just barely stayed in the park, settling in Craig Gentry‘s glove at the left field warning track to end the late rally.

3. John Danks‘ stuff at this point made him a good stylistic matchup with Weaver. He pitched over a hideous five walks and somehow squeezed out his first quality start of the year. Mike Trout bombing a flat fastball to the moon accounted for the only two runs against him all afternoon. He’s been beating the odds since his shoulder gave out on him, but Danks hardly looks like a guy who will fight off bidders for his slot in the rotation all year at the moment.

4. The Angels got an insurance run in the top of the ninth that wound up being the deciding factor when Carlos Perez dropped a sacrifice squeeze to score Kole Calhoun. Between the defense not looking particularly prepared for the move, and Zach Duke getting dinged around to extend the Angels lead, no one was very happy with Robin Ventura by the end of the eighth, but let’s focus on the real killer in the room.

5. The Sox have now scored 14 runs in their last seven games. That is not enough.

Team Record: 10-6

Next game is Friday at 7:10pm CT vs. Texas on CSN.

Lead Photo Image: David Banks // USA Today Sports Images

I guess the White Sox will do well if they can keep holding teams to 2 runs or less…

— Nick Schaefer (@Nick_BPSS) April 20, 2016

The White Sox are the first team in the American League to reach 10 victories after Wednesday afternoon’s 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The offense remains mostly listless, with just five hits a day after scoring five runs for the first time in a week, but the pitching staff has been good enough to make up for it thus far. There’s still plenty of problems for the team to address going forward, but banking 10 wins in their first 15 games is tough to complain about.

1. A day after putting up five runs for the first time in a week, and stopping a three-game losing streak behind the arm of Mat Latos, the White Sox turned to their ace, Chris Sale, and Sale authored another chapter in his book of pitching restraint, continuously dialing down his velocity, pitching to contact and racking up just three strikeouts in his seven innings of work. The only run he allowed was of the unearned variety, coming after he hit Kole Calhoun to lead off the eighth inning; he was replaced by Nate Jones, and Calhoun came around to score on a two-out error by Todd Frazier.

2. The HBP ended a streak of 10 straight batters retired by Sale, with only two of those 10 outs coming via the strikeout. In fact, the only Angels hitter who seemed to be able to square the ball up on Sale all day was the otherworldly Mike Trout, who rocketed singles into center field in his first two at-bats — the only two hits Sale allowed all afternoon.

3. Speaking of Trout, despite the two hits he uncharacteristically ran the Angels into two outs in a game where they were clearly at a premium. He was thrown out attempting to steal second base after his single in the fourth inning on a beautiful throw by Alex Avila, and in the ninth inning he slipped while trying to advance to second on an infield single that Jerry Sands was unable to pick cleanly at first base, and was gunned out for the second out of the inning while representing the tying run.

4. Robin Ventura’s strange decision to hit Tyler Saladino No. 2 in the batting order, of course, paid off immediately when Saladino crushed a 96-mph fastball from Garrett Richards into the left field seats for a home run in the first inning. The outcome of a decision doesn’t make it the right decision, of course, as batting a guy with a career .266 OBP second in your lineup isn’t a good decision no matter how you shake it. But kudos to Saladino for making the most of just his fourth start of the season and not missing a dead-red fastball.

5. A taxed bullpen meant some tough decisions for Ventura late in the game. After letting Sale start the eighth inning at 102 pitches and then yanking him upon the leadoff HBP, he turned to Jones, fresh off a two-inning, 19-pitch performance less than 24 hours earlier. With Zach Putnam, Jake Petricka, and Dan Jennings presumably unavailable after mopping up for Carlos Rodon on Monday, and Zach Duke basically a LOOGY at this point, Ventura’s options basically boiled down to riding Sale up above 110 pitches, trying to get two innings out of David Robertson, or putting his faith in Jones. While it seems unwise to go with Jones, particularly given his recent injury history, there didn’t seem to be a clear-cut right answer, and he somehow got out of his 2/3 of an inning unscathed before Ventura turned the game over to Robertson for the final four outs.

Team Record: 10-5

Next game is Thursday at 1:10 p.m. CT vs. the Angels on CSN.

Top Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Or they grinded out a win against what does not appear to be a very good Angels team, but slapped on enough encouraging individual moments for us to come away believers again. It does not matter, they needed either one just as badly.

1. Mat Latos, disconcerting tomato can of the Spring, has smoothly transitioned into being the revitalization story of April. His 6.1 innings of shutout ball Tuesday night were a continuation of his runaway early success and lowered his season ERA to 0.49, but this game saw Latos get particularly nasty. He struck out five while flashing his hardest breaking stuff of the season, and was even too lively for the strike zone early in the game (three walks in the first two innings).

He’s still getting relatively kid gloves treatment by management, but the double that Latos allowed to get chased in the seventh was the first hit out of the infield all night. The results are outstanding, and the stuff is catching up.

2. Scuffling middle-of-the-order sluggers Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier got lifted beyond their horrendous starts to the season at the expense of Angels starter Matt Shoemaker. Abreu led off the fourth with a solo dinger to center, after Frazier led off the second with a bomb to left field against the mediocre Los Angeles right-hander, amid a night where he reached base three times, scored twice and vaulted his OPS over .600 again.

3. The Sox exploded for their first game with more than three runs in a week, by scoring three runs alone in the eighth off lefty reliever Jose Alvarez, who must have done something nasty recently to Mike Scioscia. Things peaked when Scioscia put Frazier on first with Jimmy Rollins on third, only to have Melky Cabrera send them both home with a booming triple to the right-center gap.

Cabrera then immediately scored on a lined Brett Lawrie single to right, giving the two hottest hitters in the lineup a rare opportunity to work together.

4. Sox defense even got an opportunity to provide a plus contribution. Frazier provided more sparkling work at third base, but the highlight of the night was Adam Eaton gunning down Andrelton Simmons at the plate with a blazing one-hop throw to keep the Angels — and Latos’ line — scoreless in the seventh.

5. The throw allowed the Sox bullpen to keep the game scoreless. Matt Albers extended his scoreless appearance streak to 27 games despite allowing that single with Simmons on second. Nate Jones got a save — the first of his career — for pitching two perfect innings, which saw him tie the hands of the best player in the world with an 89 mph slider.

Team Record: 9-5

Next game is Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. CT vs. the Angels on WGN.

Lead Photo Credit: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images

Mat Latos had never started a season with consecutive starts allowing one or fewer runs prior to 2016. In fact, should he go a third game accomplishing that same level of run prevention it will be the first three game stretch of that nature for him since April of 2013. How is he doing it? Cat took a deeper look following his first start, and an oversimplified summary is: pitch selection. It’s definitely worth noting that he has a lot of confidence in Dioner Navarro, who caught both of his starts this season. It may also be worth noting that this will be his first start on regular rest this year.

The start to Matt Shoemaker’s season hasn’t been as productive as Latos’, but he did also recently throw multiple innings of one-hit ball in Oakland. It came on the heels of a six-run, three-inning performance in his first start, and both outings pointed to walks being his bugaboo. Unfortunately for the White Sox, they are dead last in the majors in walk percentage, and ill-equipped to take advantage of erratic pitching.

Player-turned-television analyst CJ Nitkowski hypothesized that the Angels think the White Sox are signaling signs from second base to the hitters at the plate. The problem with this is how hard I had to think about whether or not to use the plural of hitter in the statement. If the Sox are stealing signs, at least through that method, they have to get somebody to second base to carry out the mission. The offense, it would seem, is not currently good enough for some light cheating.

Despite their 13-hit attack last night, only one of the Angels hits went for extra bases – a double by Andrelton Simmons. Surely they’re eager to supplement that tonight. Latos missed a few extra bats against Minnesota but he’s still probably not looking to turn back into a strikeout pitcher. The Angels have struck out at a lower rate than any team in the league thus far, and will be attempting to make some hard contact against the man they were able to call their teammate for about a week in 2015.

The beneficiary of last night’s demotion of J. B. Shuck has been announced as Erik Johnson. Johnson has struck out 12 batters over his two starts in Charlotte so far this season but he’s also allowed 11 hits over that time.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Brett Lawrie – 2B
7. Austin Jakcson – CF
8. Avisail Garcia – DH
9. Dioner Navarro – C

Angels Lineup:

1. Yunel Escobal – 3B
2. Rafael Ortega – LF
3. Mike Trout – CF
4. Albert Pujols – DH
5. Kole Calhoun – RF
6. Andrelton Simmons – SS
7. C.J. Cron – 1B
8. Carlos Perez – C
9. Cliff Pennington – 2B

Lead Photo Credit: Kenny Karst – USA Today Sports Images

1. Carlos Rodon never got a chance to find his groove Monday night. He didn’t allow an extra-base hit, just to get any pieces of positivity out of the way, but he only recorded one out while yielding six singles and two walks. He started all but one batter he faced by dropping the count to 1-0, and his clear lack of control was not doing him any favors on close pitches as the inning wore on. For a pitcher of Rodon’s age, with his lack of experience, a start like this is going to induce some introspection, and probably a surly, defensive interview or two from Don Cooper on the topic.

2. The Angels were coming off of a 12-inning game in Minneapolis that saw them run through eight pitchers. They needed a long outing out of starter Hector Santiago to rest up their bullpen and got it. Santiago didn’t show many signs of vulnerability in his seven innings; he allowed just two hits, and struck out 10 White Sox along the way, which makes two straight days the Sox have managed to fail to put the ball in play that often against a starter.

3. The bullpen was tasked with collecting 26 outs, which without looking, I would have to say is near a record for a nine-inning game. They managed to fulfill their duties without adding much to the suffering. A trio of singles and a sacrifice bunt in the third added a tally to the visitor side of the board, and was charged to Jake Petricka, who pitched well otherwise in his two and two-thirds innings of work. Three perfect innings out of Zach Putnam preceded Dan Jennings getting touched for his first runs of the season; a testament to his sporadic use more than any sort of standout opening to his year. Zach Duke built upon his Sunday outing by contributing another scoreless inning.

4. Offensively, yet again, not much was shown. An Adam Eaton leadoff double in the 6th was just the second hit of the night for the White Sox. A Jose Abreu single and a Jimmy Rollins double would bookend Eaton’s double to make up the evening’s hit total. With the approximately 6,000 balls put in play, Eaton also got an opportunity to get some repetitions throwing from right field. A job duty that he hasn’t looked entirely comfortable doing with regularity, but seems to be getting the flexibility he needs from his recently repaired shoulder as he stretches out.

Despite his abysmal showing at the plate this season, Todd Frazier can hang his hat on the fact that his awful start at the plate (.154/.200/.308) hasn’t seeped into his fielding, consistently making solid plays at the hot corner. His .258 point drop in OPS from first to second half of 2015 was not encouraging, and the bottoming out of offense we’re seeing now is even less so. He did manage to draw a walk in the contest, which he hasn’t done since the home opener eight games ago, which incidentally, is also the last time he hit a home run.

Hot corner defense, this carried out by Yunel Escobar, robbed Austin Jackson of a double in the 5th inning. Jackson has been on the rough end of some BABIP luck in the opening two weeks, making those of us who have watched the games look upon his .157 TAv to start his season with a bit of extra empathy.

5. A taxed bullpen is not a good look for a team that doesn’t have a day off until May. The “we’re still in this one” portion of the bullpen did manage to get the night off so Ventura is not going to be without fresh options. Regardless, the Sox will enter Tuesday night’s contest asking the same of Mat Latos that the Angels were provided by Santiago, in the hopes of not taxing the unit further. Just in case, J.B. Shuck has been optioned to AAA Charlotte in order to make room for additional bullpen help.

Team Record: 8-5
Next game is Monday at 7:10pm CT vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on WPWR.
Lead Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski – USA Today Sports Images

In anticipation of his last start, I made a comment about Carlos Rodon concerning his control; more specifically, the link between his success and his ability to not walk batters in his starts. He responded by throwing five innings and walking six batters (one of which was intentional) while managing to keep Twins from turning any of their free baserunners into runs. The already selective use of his changeup went to nearly non-existent in that start, which seems to have allowed hitters to size up his four-seam fastball and kept him from getting swings and misses there, where he was able to find them in his season debut. Control is still of utmost importance to the young lefty, because as the count ages, he needs to be able to deliver his slider with confidence that hitters will be in a defensive state, and as a result, dead.

Old friend alert! Hector Santiago has faced the White Sox once before, making the return to U. S. Cellular Field last season to take on his old mates. It didn’t work out terribly well for him or the Angels, who came up short in the middle game of what turned out to be a White Sox sweep. A solid first half helped propel Santiago to his first All-Star Game appearance, but he would ultimately finish 2015 posting a cFIP just below league average. There was a time when discussions were being had about whether the White Sox should retain Hector Santiago or Jose Quintana, and between Quintana’s performance and that of Adam Eaton, who the Sox received in return for Santiago, Rick Hahn can be credited with a positive exchange.

Any time you play the Angels, you’re facing greatness. Mike Trout and Albert Pujols definitely exist, but fortunately both players are off to slow starts, with the former not yet leading the league in anything, and the latter experiencing the decline that comes with age — but definitely has enough skill to remind you that he’s Cooperstown-bound if pitchers get careless. The Angels are also arriving in Chicago fresh off of a sweep at the hands of the Twins. Yes, those Twins.

The White Sox offense … well a player or two at a time have been productive, perhaps after each has had their opportunity to prove a pulse they’ll all get into common rhythm and we’ll see some sustained production.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Brett Lawrie – 2B
7. Avisail Garcia – DH
8. Dioner Navarro – C
9. Austin Jackson – CF

Angels Lineup:

1. Yunel Escobar – 3B
2. Craig Gentry – LF
3. Mike Trout – CF
4. Albert Pujols – 1B
5. Kole Calhoun – RF
6. Andrelton Simmons – SS
7. Geovany Soto – C
8. C.J. Cron – DH
9. Johnny Giavotella – 2B

Lead Photo Credit: Kim Klement – USA Today Sports Images